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Rosewood or Maple fretboard sound difference?


Mr Fretbuzz
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Hi, I have two ESP LTD surveyor 5 strings that sound different. The differences are that one has a maple board and is over 2lb lighter in weight than the other which has an Ebony board. They have the same strings, hardware, electrics and meaty EMG pups and 3 band EQ. They have the same tone, by that I mean I can recognize the sound as one of my ESP but they do sound and play different.
The lighter maple one is a lighter sounding bass with plenty of power and character but a more slappy/percussive sound and feel, while the ebony one has a monster deeper and darker sound. By tweaking the EQ (cutting the treble and adding others on the maple one, or the opposite on the ebony one) I can get them to sound pretty much the same. My conclusion is that it is down weight of the wood and type of wood in the neck, which mirrors a lot of the inking on here.

In terms of feel the ebony board and steel strings give a more elastic, slippery feel than the maple which feels more percussive.

Both are great but different

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Pinball, but as you say one bass is considerably heavier than the other. IMO trying to pin the differences in sound between the two on the fingerboard is ignoring half the evidence in front of you.

On the other hand I own two 5-string Gus basses which are as identical as it's possible for them to be apart from the fingerboards and the electronics. Both have the same two-piece body and set neck construction with all the wood joins being in the same place. This is then encased in a carbon fibre shell. One has a cocobolo fingerboard and 2 single coil pickups with an on-board pre-amp. The other has an ebony board with 2 humbuckers and passive controls. However put the active bass into by-pass mode and engage the coil-tap on the passive and to me they sound pretty much indistinguishable.

In the end we all probably hear what we want to though.

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1381316177' post='2237372']
Pinball, but as you say one bass is considerably heavier than the other. IMO trying to pin the differences in sound between the two on the fingerboard is ignoring half the evidence in front of you.

[/quote]

Agreed I carefully didn't, what I said was (complete with spelling mistake): [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]My conclusion is that it is down weight of the wood and type of wood in the neck, which mirrors a lot of the inking on here.[/font][/color]

[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]That's what I thought but there could be lots of other variables, density of wood, pickup height. They are also different colors ( pffft).[/color][/font]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I also went on to say about the feel of the boards but it would be interesting to play them blindfolded to see how much of it is emotional.. .[/font][/color]

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[quote name='aende' timestamp='1381319621' post='2237459']
Anyone gat a Stingray with the graphite neck made by Status? Would love to hear about how that sounds!
[/quote]

Probably insanely bright! Anyone familiar with the Squier Deluxe J bass with the ebonol neck? That has a top end to it that is very unique.

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